【Career Development】Why following your passion becomes more important than ever in the AI era?
Last year, OpenAI made headlines worldwide with the introduction of text-generating AI, ChatGPT. Just recently, they unveiled video-generating AI, Sora, which impressed many with its remarkable speed. This rapid advancement has led to concerns about job security, prompting some to contemplate switching careers and venturing into AI-related fields. However, I believe that rather than dwelling on these worries, it is more crucial to excel in our own areas of expertise.
To evolve from a novice to an expert in any field demands prolonged exploration, learning, and dedicated training. Making career choices based solely on trends might mean missing the wave or regretting a path not fueled by passion. Opting for a profession primarily out of fear of obsolescence rather than genuine interest could lead to a lack of sustained motivation and hinder the ability to deeply engage and excel in that domain.
Ultimately, I believe AI can easily produce an “average-level result” in any field through a simple command. Thus, if one performs at an average level within their current profession, there is a high probability of being replaced by AI, sooner or later.
So how can one surpass the average? It becomes essential to choose a field one is passionate about. This may sound like a cliché at first glance, and I too had doubts before: ‘Is it merely coincidental that someone’s interests align with the trends of the times to make money?’ ‘What if my passion isn’t viable for a living?’ These doubts lingered until I started working in consulting in Singapore, gradually realizing: that in the age of AI, following one’s passion is more crucial than ever.
Following mainstream values: attending business school, choosing management consulting industry
To ensure a better livelihood in society, I have consistently aligned myself with prevailing trends, making choices endorsed by mainstream values. This journey commenced with my enrollment in business school and continued as I sought out coveted positions, coveted by fellow students. Despite the diversity in backgrounds and interests among business school entrants, social and familial influences, coupled with societal expectations, remarkably steered the majority of my peers towards the fabled realms of high-paying, esteemed careers such as management consulting and investment banking, promising both financial rewards and international mobility. While a select few opted for entrepreneurship or ventured into other sectors like FMCG, ESG, or luxury goods, they remained in the minority.
I became part of the management consulting industry folks, landing my first job at a consulting firm that focused on healthcare industries which thrived amidst the pandemic. The company’s stock prices soared due to a steady stream of client demands. Some might wonder: how could someone without a medical background be hired by a consulting firm primarily serving the healthcare industry? The truth is, when consulting companies recruit entry-level analysts, they prioritize soft skills over academic backgrounds. These soft skills include teamwork, communication, and learning abilities.
Among these, rapid learning ability is highly valued. Since consulting projects vary in type and client requirements, consultants need to quickly grasp industry knowledge and business models within a week or two. Furthermore, the problems faced by companies willing to pay substantial consulting fees often involve new challenges and uncharted territories, necessitating consultants to swiftly learn, understand the essence of the problems, and integrate rapidly changing industry trends to provide solutions. This also explains why consultancy firms typically prioritize candidates’ educational backgrounds during recruitment, as they reflect learning abilities.
Despite unintentionally hitting the trend of the times and landing in a thriving industry, I soon realized that something was off.
Professional skills cultivation requires interest-driven learning
With no background in healthcare industry, I was well aware that I was starting from behind. Thus, I often used my weekends to fill gaps in my knowledge, from the most basic industry terminology to current industry trends. While initially feeling a sense of wonder and pride at diving into such a specialized field, this novelty quickly faded as my workload increased.
Due to my lack of enjoyment in exploring the industry’s knowledge, I could not fully appreciate the investment and enjoyment reading brought. Instead, I developed a strong ‘input-output ratio’ mindset — I believed that if I spent extra time delving into it, it must be demonstrated in my work to be worthwhile. However, who says every effort must yield results? The truth is, compared to colleagues with a background in medical professions and years of deep interest and experience in the field, my learning was only scratching the surface, unable to offer innovative perspectives.
Initially, I attributed this to my youth, thinking that as I gained more experience and exposure to various projects and readings, my expertise would naturally grow with my experience. However, it was not until I truly experienced learning driven by passion, that thirst for knowledge and intense focus, that I realized, experience isn’t an absolute measure of skill and expertise — self-driven learning fueled by passion is.
During a casual trip, a friend introduced me to the fascinating world of psychological astrology. Initially just curious to understand, I found myself utterly captivated. I noticed significant changes within myself; in this ocean of knowledge, I lost track of time, caring not for the input-output ratio but rather thirsting for knowledge, willing to invest in professional books and courses to explore its mysteries further. Moreover, it offered me fresh perspectives to observe global trends and understand the people and things around me, enriching my writing with more metaphors, connections, and innovations. To me, delving into this field wasn’t work; it felt more like play.
It was then that I realized, I didn’t despise work; it was merely the field of work that didn’t truly interest me. Reflecting on how tirelessly I pursued astrology psychology, I realized that those colleagues who excelled at work surely experienced a similar state of engagement. Spending time in an uninteresting field meant I would forever lag behind colleagues genuinely immersed in their field and unable to offer novel perspectives, merely skimming the surface. This realization sounded the alarm for my career; I knew I had to make a change — to seek out what truly ignited my passion.
When Management Consulting is Disrupted by AI, Passion Becomes Even More Crucial
During my time working at a management consulting firm in Singapore, I have observed significant changes in the industry. The business environment faced by clients has become increasingly complex, with a wider array of challenges being presented. The traditional set of “experience” and “methodologies” relied upon by management consultants in the past is no longer sufficient to meet these evolving needs, and at times, seems impractical. Additionally, the emergence of ChatGPT has also impacted the entire management consulting industry. Common tasks of junior business analysts, such as information retrieval, distillation of key points, and text optimization, can now be directly replaced. Even the most time-consuming task, “creating PowerPoint presentations,” can be replaced in the future by more powerful AI tools like Gamma.
In societies where information dissemination was slower in the past, barriers formed by years of experience were effective. However, with the advancement of information technology, young people now have access to as much information as older, more experienced individuals. Coupled with the rapid industrial iterations brought about by technological innovation, traditional thinking centered around the “rule of experience” is no longer sufficient to cope with the rapidly changing business environment. Furthermore, with the rise of generative AI, jobs requiring lower levels of creativity in data collection, consolidation, and packaging will greatly diminish. As a result, the ability to generate innovative solutions has become even more critical than before.
Generating innovative solutions is not possible through superficial learning and occasional exposure; it requires an intense passion for the field. This passion involves constantly thinking about one’s research beyond work hours. By integrating questions into our daily lives, our perspective on the world changes: we find inspiration in unexpected places, notice similar patterns in unrelated things, and make unexpected connections, leading to better metaphors and deeper insights.
Therefore, I anticipate that the future of the management consulting industry will be shaped by a group of “experts” with a deep passion for the field. These experts should be evaluated solely based on their abilities, regardless of seniority or age, breaking away from the rigid adherence to “methodologies” and “experience” of the past.
The management consulting industry is just one example; other industries will undergo similar transformations. Generative AI will significantly enhance work efficiency, liberating humans from tasks that require low creativity. Ultimately, the question humanity will face is, with so many generative tools available, what do we want to “generate”? Answering this question requires us to revisit the questions we often set aside due to the busyness of work: “What am I passionate about?” and “What goals do I want to pursue?”
The AI era presents both challenges and opportunities, providing many with the chance to introspect rather than settle for compromises to make ends meet. Perhaps ultimately, the ideal state presented by the AI era is the fusion of work and passion, where most individuals can align their jobs with their interests.
